The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself
FDR
A bunch of years ago - maybe even a bunch of decades ago - I heard an analogy that I’ve never forgotten. If I placed a two foot wide, 30 foot long board on the ground and $500 in cash on the other side and invited you to walk across the board and the cash would be yours, we’d all walk across the board and retrieve the cash. If I took that same board and suspended it 300 feet in the air between two sky scrapers with the same deal, none of us would walk across that board. Fear is debilitating.
I’ve heard a lot of fear expressed in the last 15 days. But really it’s time for each of us to figure out what our contribution or skill or unique contribution might be and get to work - redouble our efforts. Reading, bemoaning, and contemplating is not enough. For me, it’s simply to continue doing what Trump 1.0, combined with George Floyd’s murder, motivated me to do back in 2020 when a small group of three of us pitched in and brought The Civil Conversations Project to life. It may take a long time for people to figure out what their contribution is. Personally, I believe that ANYTHING that improves American society for all of us is an action against where Trump wants to go.
I received this in an email yesterday from a political science professor and wanted to pass it on: “Yes, the re-election of Trump is a stunning setback for every value we hold dear. I’m now surrounded by people who say they want to leave the U.S. and let it sink into its own stinking mire. It’s an appealing emotional response, but in my view a better response is to remember that every step backward in American history has been followed by a huge leap forward. The Fugitive Slave Act, Dred Scott, and the Compromise of 1850 empowered the abolitionist movement, and led to the Civil War that ended slavery. The Age of the Robber Barons led to the progressive era. The failures of unfettered capitalism and the depression led to the New Deal. The rabid anti-communism of McCarthyism and the Vietnam War led to the peace movement and ushered in the biggest social change in American history. Jim Crow led to the civil rights movement. Gross environmental destruction, toxic air, and rivers on fire led an amazing raft of environmental laws. Now, we are poised to take the biggest step backward since the Civil War; it will provoke and new, vigorous movement that emphasizes everything that is lacking in Trumpism: tolerance, respect, empathy, the rule of law, democratic laws and institutions, equality, voting rights, planetary stewardship, and the belief that kindness, not venomous hatred, will best serve the nation. Sharpen your knives and get ready to fight the good fight.”
Yesterday the CEO of Delta airlines, Ed Bastion, said he expected the Trump administration would be a “breath of fresh air” after the Biden administration’s consumer-protection laws that he called government “overreach.” When I read that, two things came to mind. My first thought was a bit of surprise that he said that out loud and publicly. My guess would be that most consumers want laws that protect them, especially when it comes to keeping airplanes in the air. Or on the ground if they’re not flight worthy. My thoughts harkened back to the entire fleet of Boeing 737 Max’s being grounded by “government overreach” after two similar and unexplainable accidents killed 346 people. I wondered if that was the type of consumer protection that Bastion objected to.
My second thought went to his pay and I wondered if protecting his annual paycheck of $17,300,000 - 46 times more than the average pay of Delta’s rank and file - had anything to do with his consumer protection angst. By today’s standards, either Bastion is underpaid or Delta employees are overpaid. According to the Wall Street Journal again, American automobile CEO’s are paid over 300 times what their rank and file employees are paid.
But since The Civil Conversations Project is fundamentally about America’s Thing With Race, and in case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal had a lengthy story a couple days ago about Pete Hegseth. It’s an interesting read. Hegsworth, now a former member of the Washington DC National Guard, was pulled from the security detail for the Biden inauguration and labeled an ‘insider threat’ for sporting a White Supremacist tattoo. Hegsworth is now Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense. Since the incident Hegsworth has said that he “No longer wants this army.” So it appears that our next Secretary of Defense is going to be a White supremacist who never rose higher than major, and who hates the army he is going to oversee.
Trump and Hegsworth have both accused the military of caring more about being “woke” than being in top fighting shape, as though the two are mutually incompatible. The term “woke” as used by the MAGA crowd is meant to denigrate and belittle those who seek fairness and respect among all Americans, a fundamental America value that seems to grate on the nerves of the MAGA’s just as it did on the Tea Party, the pre-cursor to MAGA. In fact, Joint Chief of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, who Trump said on his Truth Social network in response to an authorized call that Milley made to his Chinese counterpart, that Milley should be, “put to DEATH!” Caps his, not mine.
What did General Miley say that put him so completely on Trump’s bad side? Responding to a question by Rep. Mike Waltz about the appropriateness of a seminar at the United States Military Academy at West Point called “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage,” Milley responded: “I want to understand White rage. I’m White. And I want to understand it.”
Tying the question to the January 6 insurrection, Milley asked: “What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out. I want to maintain an open mind here.”
Milley called it “offensive” that service members were being called quote, ‘woke’ or something else, because we’re studying some theories that are out there. I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?”
All of this is just a good example of how upset racists get at anything that smacks of giving Black and Brown people the slightest leg up, even just an attempt to understand.
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Important post. I feel the election results showed the true character of too much of America: willing to tolerate injustice, dishonesty, and brutality toward their fellow humans. Of course, what was new in this election cycle was the internet based tentacles of the propaganda machine funded by those who want to hold onto and gain more power. It's about power over...not empowerment for all of US citizens. Thank you for your voice and optimism. I'm hoping we all wake up and protect the principles of democracy, even if we've still to achieve them.
As always, Wayne, you keep me from jumping off a downtown Birmingham skyscraper. I dread this next 4 years.